Since time seems odd in the show, this chapter takes place during the episode: Mala Mala Jong. And for those who can see the cover art, yes I drew it :D

Jack was depressed. It had been an hour since he helped bring Mala Mala Jong to life. He was thrilled at the thought that he helped bring a warrior of destruction to life. Though the crashing reality of being replaced by said warrior was anything but thrilling. All he could do now was lay his head on his workbench and mope.

He turned his head when he saw his Jack-bots fixing his lab up. One bot picked up a picture frame then began cleaning it. "You, bring me that." Jack said. The robot did as he was told and brought the picture to him. It was the one of him and Vex. "Well…I guess this is good timing." He said to himself. He decided to go clean himself up, not wanting his friend to see him a mess after so long, it also gave him time to think of how to start off the conversation.

~Over in San Diego~

Vex's day was anything but pleasant. She walked in her room and took a look in the mirror. Hating how her whole appearance changed in a day. Her hair went from long to short. Earlier in the day she was making a jet pack. While testing it, the hair band keeping it in a bun had snapped, her long hair touching the fire of her invention. Luckily REGAC had extinguisher foam installed in him and put her out, unfortunately the foam got in the internal wiring of the jet pack and caused her to fall.

After that she had to cut the burned remains of her hair, it was now shoulder length and curled a bit. Speaking of hair, while REGAC was cleaning the foam from the jetpack, she decided to work with some chemicals, but after a few minuets of working she became sleepy. When she woke she saw a spilled vile very close to her face, she stood immediately and looked in a mirror to see that the bangs that where hanging out the right side of her goggles where now blue.

If that wasn't enough she had to get new cloths. Her old ones where to baggy on her, most likely from the fighting classes she took along with rarely eating, always to busy with her work to eat. The cloths she used to get where very hard to find so she had to settle with purple skinny jeans, a red shirt with a blue V on it, and a light black coat that cut off at her midsection and curled at the end. At least she got to get some ankle high, navy blue, Doc Martins.

The only thing about her appearance that stayed the same was her goggles and the dark eyeliner and hook design that was on both eyes. She started wearing it after she moved; it was a small reminder of her friend. Besides her look change, her first day as a hero was not what she expected.

She saved a child from being flattened by a car, the child was crying but it was understandable, the thing that wasn't understandable was why the child's mother hit her with a purse and blamed her for the near death of the child.

"It was just day one, it's gonna get better give it time." She said as she flopped down on her bed.

~Jack's lab

Jack had just stepped out of the shower and tossed on his Frankenstein shirt and black pajama pants. His hair dried quick and sprung into its usual form, while he put on his 'guy-liner' and goggles. He felt more refreshed and was thinking more clearly. "Okay, lets do this." He said to himself. He turned on one of the monitors and set the web cam up. After opening a program the words "World Wide! Talk as if there right in the room!" appeared on the screen.

He pressed the log in button and opened the friends' list. The only name in the list was: Mad Scientist V!

~On the interwebs!~

Vex sat at her workbench, she was altering REGAC's voice. "Hmm, lets give you something…strong…and sarcastic…. AND SEXY!" After a few moments she chose the voice of "Steve Blum: T.O.M ". "Perfect!" She squealed as she waited for her robot to say something.

The first thing her robot said in its new voice was something she wasn't expecting.

"Web Chat Request from: Evil Boy Genius666"

After a moment she said "Accept." The screen behind her lit up and showed the face of the evil boy genius. "Vexy? Is that you?" He asked over the voice feed. He looked at the picture on his desk then back at the monitor. "You look…different."

"Yeah well…you look the same." She said while walking to her monitor, sitting in the spinning chair and adjusting it to her liking. "It's been awhile Jack." She said awkwardly.

After a few minuets of awkward silence, Jack decided to break it. "Yeah, well some crazy stuff happened the last few months." He said with a depressed tone. This concerned his friend.

"Well Spice Rack, why don't you tell old Vex what happened." She said, her fingers lacing together so she could rest her chin on them. Jack visibly cheered up when he heard his old nickname, and the genuine interest his friend had. Vex always seemed interested in what he had to say, he made a mental note to try to contact his friend as frequently as possible.

~20 minuets later

Jack had just finished explaining what happened. The puzzle box, the time he got The Monkey Staff, being double-crossed by Katnappe, the showdowns, everything that lead to the rise of Mala Mala Jong. "And then she just left me, and get this she called me a "simpering boy" what is simpering!?" Jack practically yelled, still not understanding Wuya's insult.

It took Vex a moment to take all the information in. She couldn't believe what Jack was doing, but it felt oddly satisfying. She was happy that Jack actually stuck to his goal, all be it world domination, but he stuck to it. But she didn't like how conflicting it made her feel. She remembered being so mischievous, now she was trying to be a hero…maybe…

"No, no! Come on Vex just keep at the good guy thing! It will work out, it was just your first day." She thought to herself.

"Vex?" She broke away from her thought and looked up to see her friend. "You okay?" Jack asked. She decided to push the conflicting feelings aside for now; she just wanted to talk to her friend.

"I'm okay, I'm just trying to figure all this out." She said to reassure her friend. "Well, if those Xaiolin monks or what ever are so good, then they should have no problem taking down Mala Mala Jong. So don't worry about it." She smiled. "And if the mean lady comes back just tell her to buzz off!" She said, adding buzzing sounds to add affect.

Jack smiled. It was nice hearing this. But it didn't stop one thought from entering his head. "What about the Shen Gong Wu? I don't want Wuya's help but she knows when the Wu activate and where they are." Jack said in an aggravated tone, putting one arm on the desk and resting his head on it.

Vex could only see the top half of his head. Jack was upset again. "Spice Rack! Your selling yourself short!" Vex said, she stood from her chair and moved her face closer to the web cam, the closest thing to getting in his face.

"You've built different types of Jack-bots you egomaniac, you just told me you built a chameleon bot, and though I find it disturbing that your favorite setting is the female on the enemy team, that's impressive! Plus you've made those blood hound bots, and you said they where made to find that cliché cat chick! You can make something to help find those wu!" She was practically on the desk now, holding the web cam to her face and poking the air as if his chest was there.

Jack was backed away form his monitor feeling scared and motivated at the same time, this is how most of Vex's pep talks made jack feel. "I don't know." He still felt slightly insecure.

"Okay Jack, you left me with no choice." She thought to herself. "Gee Spice Rack, usually evil geniuses at least try something. But if you cant handle something as easy as trying, you should probably just stop and be…and regular boy genius instead of evil." She said as she climbed off the desk, wanting to see her friend's reaction.

"Now just wait one minuet!" He screamed. "Gotcha!" "I'm Jack Spicer! Evil boy genius! No one can match my intellect or ingenious inventions!" The boy yelled. "I'll show you! Prepare to eat your words!" He said as he began writing on a piece of blue paper.

Vex sighed in content. She didn't like saying negative things to encourage him; she loved to stroke his ego. But she knew stroking someone's ego doesn't really improve someone's perception on himself or herself. Though she hated negative reinforcement, it seemed to be working at the moment. "So what are you gonna do?" She asked.

"I'm going to make a Wu finder. Presenting Jack Spicer's Evil Shen-Gong-Wu-locating sensor!" Jack said while holding up the blueprint too the camera.

"Ya know, I can help you a bit…. its been awhile since she built something together." She said. She had already built her own Wu detector, but wanted to see Jack make his own, and if he was going way off, she would covertly moved him in the right direction.

"Alright, but don't try adding anything without my permission." He said as he pinned up the blueprint paper to a pin bored. Jack was kind of glad Vex was helping, but not helping too much! He could do this on his own! But yeah, doing this little project together (even if it was on a web chat) was bringing back a warm fuzzy felling in the pit of his stomach.

~The Next Morning~

Jack was still working on the locating device while Vex was sending him notes. They had been working through out the night and didn't seem to be stopping. "Dude, you forgot to carry the four." Vex said in a sleepy tone, correcting Jack's math.

"What ever, you fix it and send it to me." He said while connecting to wires together. A few minuets passed before he heard a loud "Thump". Jack turned and saw on the web cam that his friend and fallen asleep. "Weakling." He walked to the computer monitor and turned up the microphone setting.

"Vex, get up." He said, causing the girl to stir in her sleep. "Hmm." She got up and rubbed her eyes. "Go to bed loser, I'll finish the device and show it to you when you wake up." Jack said.

"Mmmmm, alright but…don't got…messing up anything. See ya around Spice Rack."

"See ya Vex." He said. Both teens turned off their web cams. Vex fell asleep at her desk and had to be carried to bed by REGAC, while Jack just fell asleep on floor, one of his Jack-bots putting a pillow under his head and blanket on top of him.

~To Be Continued